Twins postgame: On Mauer's big night, Berrios finds a way to grab some of the spotlight

It ended up being Joe Mauer's night, but Jose Berrios was filthy again. His curveball looks even tighter than a year ago. Someone remarked that it breaks on two levels, up and down as much as left to right. When he's throwing it for strikes, he's going to be tough to beat. He also has a fastball that can touch 95, and he gets good movement on it when he throws it down in the strike zone.

He's made three starts:

One in which he threw a complete game shutout.

One in which he through three no-hit innings - and made it look easy - before falling apart.

One in which he dominated for seven innings.

"I'm not a pitching guru or a guy who sees a lot fo things than people who are more focused on that area," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "I see a compactness to his delivery that seems to be keeping him on line. There was a couple times tonight when he flew open a little bit and his arm trailed and that breaking ball backed up and we saw it."

But Berrios corrected himself and returned to shutting down Chicago. Even Roy Smalley went to twitter to sing Berrios' praises.

"My goodness. This is one of the biggest overmatches I have ever seen," Smalley wrote. "Chisox have absolutely no chance against Berrios’ stuff. I will say again: he just needs to pound the strike zone. Hitters only chance is to get to 2-0 or 3-1."

Berrios fell behind 2-0 once all night. And got to three ball counts just twice.

Berrios is 2-1 with a 2.18 ERA and is setting himself up for a strong season. He could have more nights like Thursdays, especially when he runs into inexperienced lineups.

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La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts.

Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.

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